Ok im currently using Wordpress, I've modded the hell out of cutline to make a more CMS based wordpress site. The thing is Im not crazy with css and need a little help. here's the site The thing is most all my post are using table so I could position my text where I wanted it. You will notice that there is over 3 positions for my entry p div being used throughout the site (thanks to tables,,, blahh..) Anyhow, I know I can do this using css and drop the tables all together. But how, I dont really know. This is where I need some input on using classes and element style ect to control my <p> tag for all the different places it needs to be in a given post/pages. Could someone please take a look at this and point me into the right direction. fyi I did install exep-php. incase I had to use php inside my post. Im currently using 2 main style sheets (not including IE6-7) to flow the SEO correctly on the site and pages. So have at it, and thanks for the time!
If I understand you correctly I have a question. Why bother? If tables are working for you, go ahead and use them. Tables are just another type of CSS container.
I agree. You're not too hot with CSS? Lemme tell you, I think I've got most of it down, and I wouldn't want to wade into the cesspool called Wordpress. Better to start a fresh (and NON Wordpress/Drupal/Joomla/whatever templating) site and learn CSS on that one. Positioning can be a bitch in the first place--- it's just worse on a widget-filled Wordpress page. You will tear out more hair trying to emulate your tables than get stuff done. Main problem is when turning a tables-site into a "div" site, people try to replace every table with a div. It doesn't work like that. "Div" sites are build differently, and they work differently and the CSS works differently with divs than with tables. Tables can do some weird things divs can't, and vice versa. You'll end up with a "table-copy" which will be bigger than either a tables-alone or divtags-alone site will ever be. That said, I have converted table sites into div-tag sites. But I did it by completely re-writing them and comparing how they looked with the original site (because only the code was to change, not the look). My code is almost always half the size because so many table cells were used for positioning. With div-tag style code, you are merely taking the text and image and whatever content and marking it up like it was a school paper.... this is a header, this is a paragraph, this is a form. The CSS will do the rest with positioning, which is why it reduces the amount of HTML you now have-- because the tables are doing most or all of the positioning. But CSS isn't easy. You can jump in, but you're always learning new stuff a year or two later that, if you'd known it in the beginning, would have made everything cleaner and easier. I'm still going back and re-doing sites I only did a few months ago because I learned something new... and I expect I will simply continue to do that. I strongly recommend this book, as it got my feet under me when it came to CSS and page-set-up: HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS by Rachel Andrew and Dan Shafer. The book assumes you are already badass with (x)HTML. If you're still wonky on that, get Build Your Own Web Site the Right Way Using HTML and CSS by Ian Lloyd. Both those books are old and should be in the library (check the website inside the books for post-printing errors that have been corrected if you get an old edition). They don't teach you everything, but they get you in the right direction and then you can learn all the rest online, on forums with Crusty Old Guys Who Know Stuff etc. and not be steered the wrong way.
Word, I will look into that book for sure! Now, I don't want you to get me wrong, this site is all css, except in the excerpts, I used tables to position my data in the post only. So all in all the table design is very small. Now as far as wordpress, I totally love it and would really go nowhere else, its amazing for seo with all the plug-in's ect... Maybe you can take a look at some of the code and tell me what you think? thanks!
Well, okay. Here's what I think: I see that you've got an IE7 stylesheet, which since IE7 really is pretty close to standards (as close as MS has gotten anyway), you shouldn't need one (though I'm a strong believer in not having one for IE6 either). I think the reason you've got one is because of your code issues: http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=h...(detect+automatically)&doctype=Inline&group=0 The validator sees errors, though I think a lot are caused by the unclosed <a> you've got right before the h1. It'll say you can't have any of that other stuff in there becuase the validator thinks you're trying to stick blocks (<h1>, <form>) inside an inline element (the <a>). You're also apparently confused about how XHTML closes "empty" elements. You've got <br /> (which is okay) AND you've got </br> which doesn't exist. Yeah, a pure XML parser would look at <br></br> as okay, but that's not HTML. HTML 4 is <br> period. And XHTML (what you have) is <br />. The part that's actually closing the element is the / not the >! But browsers dunno that. So a lof your other errors are from those. I agree with the use of an H2 that you have up in the header-image area, but then I would make those sub categories like above the side menus <h3>s as they are heading specific setions of the site and not the same broadness as the first <h2>. As for the table part, that could easily be done with divs (and lots of floating) but it's already in a table and tables don't mean anything SEO-wise so I dunno, if someone gave me this site I'd clean up the indenting and the errors but unless I felt like doing extra work I'd just leave the tables. They're no big deal there. *Edit I thought maybe I'd have a go at it but theres SO much redundant CSS (typical template BS) and stuff that doesn't even make sense (why would anyone make their line-height smaller than their font???) that I realised it would be a good project. Something that would take up a good few hours on a Saturday or something. The HTML is pretty easy, but I'd have to load it up onto my server and check, recheck... cause I can't tell which CSS rules are being applied (I'm assuming th page looks the way you want it to) and I'd have to make a change, check and recheck everything over and over again... or I'd scrap everything and start with an image of the page and code to make it look that way (which for me would be the much much easier route). Seriously this is why I hate turdpress. Bloat bloat crap and bloat. Holy crap. I place the blame squarely on the idea that you "group" CSS styles, like all headers in one place, and then all <a>s, and then all p's... Ug. Better to start from the top of the page, and work your way down. There's only one h1, so no need to have three seperate paragraphs describing (conflictingly) what it should look like.
Ok I did a little cleaning, The few errors on the Home Page I cant figure out why they are there. The Contact Us page SUCKS WP is dumping <p> all over the page that aren't in the code. The Arcive pages are pretty much the same as the Home Page. What are your thoughts? As far as multiple style sheets, yea IE just doesnt handle some spacing like FF does, I also have another SS for the Archive pages so the <h1> changes from the Home Page Contact Us ect... Let me get your thoughts. And thanks so much for your help!!!